Way of the Beast
by CruxisKat
Summary: Ed is found in the underground city after disappearing there two years ago, but why is he there?  And more importantly, did he really mean to return?


**This is weird. Tell me what you think and if I should continue, I'm not entirely sure if it's anything you guys would like. And I have no clue what rating to give it or what genre, suggestions welcome!**

**Here ya go…**

**Way of the Beast**

This was ridiculous.

All he had wanted to do was find some of the rumored Blood Lilies that grew here, near the so called 'Gates of Hell', for his friend, and instead he found himself staring down the maw of a giant red Beast.

The Beast looked like a wolf, only it was much larger, and much stronger. There was also a strange gleam in its eyes that seemed to signify intelligence, much more than that of an ordinary wolf anyway.

It lashed out at him with huge razor like claws, and saw like teeth. Already he had been slashed by those claws, huge bloody gashes were splayed across his chest, but the red beast was looking much worse than he was.

He backed up, snarling, trying to scare off the red interferer. Having no luck with intimidation, he lunged, sinking his own claws and fangs into the thick red fur and sensitive skin around its neck. With a mighty rip he pulled away, spitting out the skin and fur that remained in his mouth. The Beast surely wouldn't last much longer because of those wounds, the victory was his today.

As he turned away to continue his search, and to avoid looking at the dieing creature in front of him, he felt something large and heavy plow into his back.

The next thing he knew he was falling, falling through the Gates of Hell. Strange wide eyes stared at him and out of the blackness things like…hands grabbed him.

The last thing he remembered before darkness claimed him was a bright light piercing the darkness; it seemed to come from the other side. Funny, he thought hell would be darker…

* * *

Roy Mustang had no idea what he as doing; he had no clue as to what possessed him to go down into that empty underground city. Maybe he wanted to see where one of his best subordinates vanished without a trace about two years ago, but what good that would do? He had no clue.

It's not like he wanted to admit that the boy was gone, quite the opposite, he wanted to believe that the kid was still alive, in fact he wanted to go out and search for him like the boy's brother. But instead he was stuck in Central signing paper after meaningless paper.

Maybe he would be able to find some proof that the boy was still alive, but if he was alive, where did he go? Surely he wouldn't have left without seeing Alphonse's new body! That just made a wave of doubt course through his body.

He had spent what felt like hours walking through this city, it was eerily silent; the only sounds in the entire city were those of his footfalls. He made his way into the grand hall that they had found Alphonse in that dreadful day.

As he looked around he noticed that he was not the only one in that large room, no, in the middle of the room there were two figures. Both seemed to be naked and had long hair obscuring their features. One had long red hair that was covering most of its body, the other…the other had blond hair!

'_Could it be?_' thought Roy desperately, as he rushed over to its side. He turned it over and brushed the hair out of the way so he could see the person's face, and his breath caught in his throat.

There was no mistake, it had to be Ed. But he looked so much older now! And what was this sticky substance that was covering the teen?

Blood.

The teen was bleeding profusely from the long gashes that ran along his bare chest. There also appeared to be bite marks from some sort of wild animal, but what kind Roy had no clue, the wounds were so large that any type of animal Roy thought of was too small. What the hell could have made those wounds?!

Roy checked his pulse and to his relief the boy was fine, but he needed to get him to a hospital before he lost too much more blood. He looked over toward the redhead, he couldn't tell from where he was, but it looked like whatever had attacked Edward had also gone after that person.

Roy walked over, much more cautious now because whatever had inflicted these wounds could still be somewhere down here, lurking in the shadows. His single eye silently scanned the darkness, ears trying to pick up any sound that could give away the beasts whereabouts. Nothing.

He reached the red figure and turned it over; it too was a man, only he was much more…unfortunate than Fullmetal. His throat had been torn out by the animal's teeth; it looked like he had bled to death not too long ago. Mustang couldn't do anything for the man, but he could get Ed to the hospital before he succumbed to the same fate.

He hurried back over to Ed and slowly picked him up, all the while searching for the creature that did this. It had to have been some sort of chimera, the boy had a record of being harassed by those things, and no other type of animal would fit.

He looked down at the unconscious blond, and gasped at what he saw. The boy didn't have any automail. He had two flesh and blood limbs where Roy had gotten accustomed to seeing metal. He smiled, that was one thing that had been making him nervous about carrying the teen, the hospital was far away, and metal was heavy, if the boy still had his two metal limbs Roy had been sure he would have a heck of a time getting him there.

Roy gave one last look about the hall, still empty, no sign of whatever had caused these injuries to Ed and left one man dead. He then quickly began running out of the building, through the empty streets and out the way he came. It seemed to take him forever, when he made it to the surface he noticed it was late at night, he had went down there sometime in the afternoon. He ran through the dark city, getting strange looks from the drunks that littered the streets.

He finally made it into a hospital; it was the one he remembered Ed staying at after the Lab 5 incident.

The nurses there were really helpful, and soon Ed had been given a room and had his wounds treated. The gashes in his chest had required several stitches, and so did some of the bites that were on his arms, but after all that the doctors said he would be fine, and could probably leave whenever he woke up, as long as he didn't do anything to strenuous and got lots of rest. The doctors didn't really want him to leave however, at least that was the feeling Roy got, they were all curious as to how he sustained those wounds and how he seemed to be healing from them so quickly.

Roy didn't really want him to leave so soon either, he had no way of knowing if this really was Ed, the automail would have given it away, but since he didn't have any, it could be possible that he was just some look-alike.

He looked into the room holding the boy; even though he had been through a vicious attack he looked so calm, so…regal. Roy had no clue where that thought came from, but it seemed to fit, the person he remembered as being so troublesome looked like he had much more on his mind than recovering from those wounds, it looked like he didn't even register the fact that he was wounded.

Roy decided to call a few of his other subordinates, tell them who he found and send some of them down into the city to retrieve the other and see if they could find any evidence of whatever had attacked Ed. But investigating the city could wait until tomorrow, what he really wanted was someone to keep him company while he waited for Ed to wake up. He didn't really want to be the only one in the room incase when the boy woke up he decided to take out his frustration of being in a hospital again on Roy.

It was late at night, and the only person he thought would actually show up was Hawkeye, so instead of wasting his money calling his other subordinates, he just called her.

He spent more time than he would have liked telling her what had happened, but that couldn't be helped, seeing Ed again after everyone had believed him dead was amazing. After he hung up, he walked quickly back to the room Ed was in. He was still asleep; Roy didn't know whether he was relieved or disappointed because of that.

Mustang pulled up a chair and sat close to the slightly tanned boy's face.

Soon he found himself dozing off. It had been a long day, and after these events he assured himself that feeling some exhaustion was normal, but that didn't mean he didn't hate himself for it.

He got up and got a coffee, glad that the hospital workers let him stay here so late at night; he hoped that they would let Hawkeye in…

He took a sip of his coffee and headed back into the room, to be greeted by a pair of wide gold eyes staring at him. He smiled at the blond and prayed it didn't look too forced.

"Fullmetal, good to see you again." He managed to choke out; the blond just stared at him in confusion.

"'Fullmetal'? What are you talking about Roi? Where are we? What is this place? This is hell isn't it? It has to be, I fell through the Gate, why did you come here? What happened to you?" rushed Ed, he sounded panicked. Roy was shocked that the kid said his first name, but the way he said it made him think he thought he was talking to someone else.

"Relax, this isn't hell. You're-"

"No this has to be hell, and you can't be Roi, you don't smell like him! You must be a demon! Trying to trick me and steal my soul, well too bad! I can see through your disguise, demon, you may look sort of like Roi, but you can't fool my nose, you stink of sulphur and smoke! You must be a demon!!" shouted Ed, he was snarling at Roy now, looking like a feral beast. His teeth were bared and he looked like he was ready to leap out of bed and attack Roy, maybe rip out his throat like what happened to that other red haired man down in the underground city.

Why was Roy thinking of that? There was no way Ed could have been responsible for those types of wounds, it was physically impossible!

"Listen to me! I'm Roy Mustang, remember? 'Colonel Bastard'? Does that ring any bells?? I'm the Flame Alchemist! That's why I smell like smoke!" Roy was panicking now, the kid was frothing at the mouth, looking like a mad dog, he thought that the kid would attack him, but verbally, not like this!

"No!! You can't be him!! He's dead! There's no way you could be him!!" yelled the blond, spit flying from his mouth.

At the shouts of both Ed and Roy, several doctors and nurses rushed in, they shoved Roy out of the way and began trying to restrain Edward. The stuck several needles filled with some unknown clear liquid into his arms, the first couple didn't work as the doctors were hoping them to, so more had to be administered. Soon the teen slumped forward, the drug the doctors had given him finally kicking in and putting him to sleep.

"That was more than enough tranquilizer to put down a bear!" exclaimed one of the doctors, wiping his brow. "What happened here?" he asked, turning to Roy.

"Well, he woke up, and then began to say things about hell and me being a demon." Explained Roy, he had no clue how the teen managed to smell the smoke and other chemicals on him, they didn't smell very strong and you could only really smell them if you stuck your nose into his Ignition Gloves. But the kid had smelled them, and he was several feet away! He shouldn't have been able to!

"Right, well it may be that he is just a bit disorientated. He was attacked by something, so he could still be in shock. When he wakes up again, make sure a nurse or doctor is in here, we can't have him injuring himself or someone who is visiting him." said the doctor, "The drugs should keep him asleep until tomorrow afternoon, you should go home and get some rest."

"Thank you." said Roy, nodding to the doctor. He would go back to his apartment and try to get some sleep, he wasn't sure if sleep would come, but he needed some time to think, away from the blond. He looked down at his coffee cup, it didn't last long. Sometime during the talk with the blond he had crushed it, the coffee that was in it was pooled at his feet. Surprising that he didn't notice the hot liquid dripping from his hand.

He threw the remains of the paper cup in the trash, and headed out of the hospital. Once he got outside he noticed Hawkeye, she had been sitting on the steps and upon his arrival she got up and walked over to him.

"Sir, was it really him?" she asked softly. She had been one of the few who had known about his true feelings towards the smaller alchemist, after his disappearance she had done all she could to keep Roy from sinking into depression.

"I think so, he didn't really seem to recognize me at first, but then he went on to say I was dead. I don't understand…" sighed Roy. So much for thinking it would be just like the good old days again.

"Why would he think you're dead?"

"No clue. But I'm going to head home, in the morning organize a search party to go down into the underground city, there's a body there that needs to be identified. But be sure to tell them to be on the lookout, there could be some sort of chimera down there."

"Yes sir!" replied Hawkeye, saluting. They continued walking in silence for a few blocks, until they were forced to part ways. They said their goodbyes and Roy continued to his apartment.

Once he made it inside, Roy took off his boots and jacket. He then went to his small room and took off the rest of his uniform and got into bed, as soon as he pulled the blankets up to his chin he fell into a troubled sleep.

* * *

The next morning Roy didn't even bother going to headquarters. He made his way straight to the hospital where Ed was and into his hospital room.

The boy was still asleep, but he was lying on his side facing the door instead of on his back how he had been left last night. Roy walked over to his chair that was still by the blonde's head.

He sat down and looked at the boy's back. The blankets were only covering him from the waist down, and it looked like the hospital gown that he had been dressed in was ripped off. His waist length blond hair was pooling on the bed near his right shoulder, and his left shoulder was totally exposed. It was on that shoulder that Roy saw something startling.

It was a red tattoo. It reminded him of the Ouroboros tattoos the Homunculi had, but it was the cross and the snake symbol that Roy remembered seeing on the back of the kid's jacket and painted on Al's shoulder when he was a suit of armor. Why did he have that mark on his shoulder blade?

Roy was just about to get up and take a closer look when the blond rolled onto his back and let out a yawn. The teen began to rub his eyes and slowly wake up. Roy quickly rushed to the door and waved to a nearby nurse, she grabbed a needle and made her way to Roy. Roy had turned back to the room when he saw her come; he didn't want the kid to attack him while his back was turned.

Edward was looking at him expectantly. His eyes had a sad look to them, but he wasn't snarling or baring his teeth at Roy, and that was a great improvement to last night. Roy carefully made his way back over to the chair, Ed's golden eyes never leaving him. The nurse came in and stood by the door, Ed flicked his eyes over her once before returning to stare at Roy.

"Good morning Edward. How are you feeling today?" asked Roy, he tried to force all the nervousness and fear out of his voice and body, the kid reminded him of a wild animal, he didn't want to provoke the kid into attacking him by sounding, or smelling, afraid.

"I'm alright, sore, but alright. I am a little curious as to where I am though." He said with a small smile. The kid was probably doing the same as he was, Roy realized, both of them were probably really nervous, Roy because he didn't want the kid to respond like he had last night, and Ed because he had no clue where he was and probably still believed himself to be in hell.

"You're in a hospital in Central, you disappeared two years ago and no one knew where you went. Where the hell have you been, Fullmetal?" said Roy, forcing himself to relax so hopefully the blond would follow suit.

"Central? That means I'm really back, huh?" mumbled Ed, he looked saddened by the news however, and not glad like Roy had thought he would be. "But only two years? That's strange. Where have I been? You wouldn't believe me even if I told you."

"You seemed to vanish off the face of the earth! At this point I'll believe anything you tell me, as long as it's not something like 'I never left'!" laughed Roy; he was trying to be as friendly as he could, trying to get a smile out of the boy. It worked.

"Alright, I was on the other side of the Gate. After I performed the transmutation to get Al's body back I was sent there, and I had been living there quite comfortably for the majority of my life." Said Ed, a small sad smile replacing the happy one he had after listening to Roy.

"What do you mean 'the majority of your life'?" asked Roy, starting to get really curious now. The nurse had decided that everything was fine and left the two to continue their conversation.

"There is a time difference there. For me it has been a lot more than two years since I was taken there. It was a nice place, so similar and yet so different at the same time. The names for things were a little different, but I met many familiar people…" trailed Ed, looking at the blankets instead of at Mustang.

"Is that why you called me Roi last night?" asked Roy, realizing he hit the mark when the teen tensed and looked back up at him with wide eyes.

"Wasn't sure if you remembered that…" muttered the teen, "Yeah, you look just like him, only he has longer hair and two eyes…what happened to you anyway?"

"I lost it the night I fought Pride." He said, tapping the black patch.

"Why did you…? Right, I remember, the Homunculi. It's been so long, I forgot some of these things… I assume you won? That's why you're still alive, right?" asked Ed, it was strange to have such a calm conversation with the boy, Roy had never had one with him where Ed wasn't fuming or calling him names.

"Yes I won, how about you? We don't know what happened in the underground city, Al can't remember anything and the other girl, Rose, wasn't a reliable witness."

"Really? Al can't remember? That's too bad, but not unexpected. It happened so long ago, Envy and I went to the other side, I killed him there, but Gluttony should still be alive, he's probably still stuck in the underground city though."

"Was that who gave you those wounds? Gluttony?" asked Roy.

"What? No, a Beast from the other side gave me these. Hey, was there another guy with me?" asked Ed, he looked as if he had just thought of something chilling.

"Yes, but he was dead when I found him."

"That's a relief." Said Ed with a relieved sigh, that was strange, shouldn't the boy be sad that his companion died?

"Why is that a relief?"

"He was the one who gave me these wounds, I don't want him causing trouble for me on this side too!" laughed Ed, sounding genuinely happy the other man was dead. That didn't sound like the Edward he knew at all…

"How did he give you those wounds? They were obviously made by an animal, not a human."

"Who said the people on the other side were human?"


End file.
